January 11, 2011

Preparing for Recuperation

First of all, I have been terrible in keeping my knitting blog updated. As a teacher, I have to maintain a website, blog, wikispace, etc. for students to consult. Well, that takes a lot of time. Since this is my last year of teacher, next year there won't be that excuse. In mid-August before school started, I took a "tumble" while wheeling a small cart with supplies on it from my car into school. Actually, the cart began to fall and I ended up astride it. II was diagnosed with a severely strained knee and went through six weeks of physical therapy. The pain never went away and actually became worse. So, the end of November, I was back at the doctor's office. He referred me to an orthopedic surgeon about 55 miles west of home. I was given an appointment for Dec. 19 only to have it cancelled the week before when the surgeon suffered an injury and needed to have "a procedure" done ... the receptionist said that he wouldn't be accepting new patients until the 3rd to 4th week of January. I didn't want to wait that long, so I was given an appointment on Dec. 29 with the other knee specialist in the same office. He gave me a cortisone shot that "zapped" all pain ... but for only six days! He did say it wasn't a fix, but a temporary relief from pain. I would need complete knee replacement surgery within 4-6 weeks. Well, I called the office the end of last week to schedule surgery only to be told the "knee docs" and their staff were at a conference and would be home mid-week. Knowing that I won't be as agile as before ... at least for a while, I decided that I need to prepare for the recuperation time. This past week-end, I was able to get knitting projects ready to knit ... a sweater for my dog, a shawl for a friend, a vest that has been a WIP way too long, and I sweater that I started last year at this time only to discover that I didn't have enough yarn for the long sleeves that I wanted, instead of the 3/4 length on the pattern. I took care of the most important "stuff", at least to me, first. Since then I have been making double batches of some of our favorite meals to put in the freezer so the dh can take them out and easily make lunch and supper. So far, I have made hamballs (put them in cupcake tins to freeze), Swedish meatballs, a couple of soups, some beef gravy made from the crockpot drippings of a beef roast (for hot beef sandwiches), and still hope to make a couple chicken casseroles that we like. We won't starve! Here in the midwest, we have endured another two-day snowfall and are just waiting for the wind to pick up later today to give us the blizzard status. We received 8+ inches of the light, fluffy snow that glistened under the streetlight last night, so when the wind comes, it will blow. Before the snow, we did have freezing sleet, so that roadways are very slippery. We have had two days of school cancelled, so will have those added on the end of the school year. I try to post some completed projects later on today ... can only sit at the computer about 10 minutes before my knee starts aching. Happy knitting, everyone! TLGB